Introduction

Alliance for True Democracy

Manifesto

Hong Kong people’s fight for universal suffrage has yet to succeed. We have to soldier on. Up till now, our Chief Executive is returned by a “small circle” election that lacks popular recognition, and half of the Legislative Council’s seats remain narrow-based functional constituencies. Public opinion can hardly be fully reflected.

For Hong Kong to progress, for its people to have an accountable government, we must set up a truly democratic system with popular and fair elections to pick our Chief Executive and the entire legislature.

Today, we join our democratic forces to form the Alliance for True Democracy (ATD), do our best to achieve our common goal. We will invite organizations which share the same belief to join us to strengthen the democratic league.

ATD’s first phase work will be to mobilize citizens to take an active part in discussions on the universal suffrage system for electing the Chief Executive and all the Legco seats. We will then present that to the government.

ATD’s final double-universal suffrage plan will be based on international standards, in particular article 25 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Some recent comments say our future Chief Executive election should come with some “elimination process” or “preliminary election”, and a “love China, love Hong Kong” criterion. ATD must stress any such mechanism that would rule out any popularly supported potential candidate would amount to phony democracy, treading on people’s rights to elect and be elected. There is no objective or legal definition of “love China, love Hong Kong”. Such a candidacy requirement would easily be used as political censorship. We will firmly oppose that.

For the Hong Kong community to achieve a consensus on political reform, the government must conduct community-wide discussions and consultation. The administration must also formulate plans founded on mainstream public opinion. The official consultation should start as soon as possible to allow Hong Kong people ample time to express their views. ATD solemnly urges the government to stop stalling and urgently start the work.

We also call on the Hong Kong public to actively push for democracy. Only when we have a truly democratically elected Chief Executive, and have scrapped all functional constituency seats, can Hong Kong enjoy long-term stability, maintain the core values we treasure, and attain true social harmony.

About us

Democratic forces joined together to form the Alliance for True Democracy (ATD) so as to achieve our common goal on universal suffrage. We will invite organizations which share the same belief to join us to strengthen the democratic league.